Author Archives: Baron Bodissey

A War of Competing Worldviews

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“We must abandon the picture of a world divided up by states, in which states make war and conclude peace with one another. The trend — as shown by the Balkan wars — is toward denationalization, privatization and commercialization of war, in the course of which local warlords, bandit chiefs, mercenary-hiring companies, as well as internationally connected and deployable religious warriors are increasingly the real actors in the prosecution of war.”

The following article by Udo Ulfkotte was originally published on February 20 at Kopp Online. JLH, who translated the piece, includes this note:

Udo Ulfkotte has turned up before in Gates of Vienna as a modern Jeremiah — heeded by some and carefully ignored by those in power. He practices what he preaches, has settled with his family on a farm that makes them largely self-sufficient.

The concluding advice in this essay can be clicked on to lead to an ad for his most recent book, No Black, No Red, No Gold: Poverty for Everyone in a Jolly Immigrant Community.

The translated article (which I highly recommend):

The New World Disorder: Why the Surveillance of Radical Muslims Is a Failure

by Udo Ulfkotte

Something is changing in German-language territory. History, ultimately, means change. Policy maintains that the changes will be good for us. In this process, a new world order is arising out there with more and more Islamist cells.

There are many good books and DVDs on Islam, But one thing is mostly left out. If we examine the goals, motives and ideological-religious background of the radical Islamic network, which to all appearances, has control of firm institutional linkages and a not-to-be-underestimated criminal energy, we should expect the uneasiness of German authorities and citizens to increase. More than 3.2 million Muslims are living in Germany, in peaceful coexistence — at first glance — with their fellow citizens.

Yet in so many kebab shops and mosques and Islamic organizations there are not always relaxed conversations. An Islamic ghetto is developing in our midst, which has various faces — not just peaceful — and has been absorbing the mindset propagated among believing Muslims by the previously mentioned groups, organizations and fraternities. One of those concealed faces is the distorted mask of terror, hidden in plain sight by discussion forums, multiculti events, and the German enthusiasm for dialogue, while it clandestinely condones or encourages acts of war and terror which will realize the alleged plans of Allah. And so, a small, radical minority is bringing all of Islam into disrepute because it is prepared to declare war on our cities in the not too distant future.

Certainly, the greatest part by far of Muslims does not identify with radical Islamists. 72% of people of Muslim faith living in Germany are in favor of a clear separation of church and state. Only 3% are part of the Islamist scene being watched by state security. If you include their family members in the calculation, you reach about 10% of all Muslims. As a percentage, the Islamist groups easily exceed the extreme rightist parties like DVU or NDP, against which state security — rightly — puts forth great efforts. The Turkish radical scene, which has substantially more adherents at its disposal, is by no means so peaceable, but need not fear state security to the same extent as does the rightist. Barely a handful of agents are concerned with this extremist club. Why is that?

In Germany, every federal state and every authority within it surveils for itself the activities of suspicious groups, which often means that several persons are responsible for each of these groups. For this reason alone, connections between potential terrorist groups and organized crime cannot be identified because completely separate agencies are responsible for them. One of them is headquartered with the Federal Police in Wiesbaden and the other in Meckenheim. To be sure, they do communicate, but the important exchange of information is only rudimentary. So sometimes there is the apparently absurd situation that the same group is being investigated by one division for money laundering and by the other for danger of terrorism.

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Reflections on a World Gone Mad, Part 3

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The fifth annual Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations met in Vienna on February 27th and 28th, and Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was one of the attendees. She has filed a account on what she observed, and discusses the larger ramifications of the AoC in the ongoing Islamization of the West.

The report below is the final part of a three-part series. Previously: Part 1, Part 2.

Reflections on a World Gone Mad
Part 3: Implementing the results

by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

How does the Alliance of Civilizations propose to implement its strategies of re-education? In order to achieve alignment with demands voiced by the OIC, the Alliance aims to address youth, education, media, and migration, picking up initiatives proposed by the OIC:

1.   Intercultural and interfaith dialogues
2.   Media education
3.   Teaching religion in school
4.   Governmental, university, and civil society programs and initiatives “that educate and empower Muslim immigrants in the US and Europe”. (Bat Ye’or, p. 163)

 

Concerning education, it was Kofi Annan who, back in 2004, urged the “need to unlearn the habit of xenophobia, that people are taught to hate by leaders who exploit fear, ignorance or feelings of weakness.” In order to combat this, we must engage in the process of unlearning the stereotypes about the “other” or “the others”, unlearning the habit of xenophobia, and unlearning intolerance.

And what better way to accomplish this evil than to re-educate youth? This constitutes Goebbels-like indoctrination at the lowest and weakest level of society, our children, who are to be conditioned to tolerate even the intolerable.

Would that include tolerance of religiously sanctioned domestic violence? Just a cultural matter which must be respected. Acceptance of the death penalty for apostasy? A minor matter which inter-religious dialogue can talk away. A woman receiving only half of what her brother inherits, as sanctioned by religious law?

So this is suddenly no longer a matter of fundamental rights after all, and must be unquestionably respected in the name of diversity? And why is there nothing said about religious and cultural norms and practices which promote hatred of Jews, Christians and apostates, those institutions which oppose freedom of expression and which see blasphemy as a serious moral vice, or even a capital crime to be punished according to sharia law?

How does one square this circle of preventing one thing — undefined hatred, according to the Alliance — by allowing and “safeguarding” something else — freedom of expression? I have asked the OSCE about this apparent contradiction, but then again, neither the OSCE not the UN has any misgivings about this discrepancy.

Sampaio even goes as far as to question whether “existing legal instruments on freedom of thought, conscience and religion are capable of meeting the new ongoing challenges.”

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The Salafist Heroes of Jamla Village

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The following video was shot by fighters of the Free Syrian Army after they overran and slaughtered the defenders of an outpost on the Israeli border held by forces loyal to the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

These jihadis are Salafists. Notice that from their point of view, one of the most damning pieces of evidence against the men they slaughtered was that they had been drinking alcohol.

Bear in mind that these noble mujahideen are bankrolled and provided with weapons and logistical support by the United States, Turkey, and various Western European nations. These are your tax dollars at work.

WARNING: This video is gruesome. It shows repeated graphic images of corpses. Persons who are sensitive to depictions of violence should NOT watch it.

Many thanks to Russkiy for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

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Violence against Women in Islam

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The Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV), the political party founded by Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, has published a report on the prevalence of Islamic violence against women, along with the rationales for it which may be found in the core scriptures of Islam.

Below is the press release sent out this morning by the PVV:

PVV publishes report on Violence against Women in Islam

Today, March 8th, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) published a report entitled “Geweld tegen vrouwen binnen de islam” (Violence against Women in Islam).

The report lists texts from the Koran and the Hadith which encourage and sometimes even command the use of violence against women.

As a result of mass immigration during the past decades, Islamic anti-female behavior has spread in Western societies. The report criticizes the attitude of Western intellectuals and politicians who turn a blind to this phenomenon out of political-correctness.

The report also devotes particular attention to the situation of Islamic women in the Netherlands — a country which has almost 17 million inhabitants, of which almost 1 million Muslims.

In the Netherlands:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/7/2013

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The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously today to impose a new batch of sanctions on North Korea in response to the hermit kingdom’s most recent nuclear test. Just before the UN announced its decision, North Korea threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States if sanctions were imposed.

In financial news, unemployment in France rose to 10.2%, the highest level since 1999. Meanwhile, the “Troika” is looking to find cause for firing 7,000 to 8,000 civil servants in Greece, in order to help the country cut expenses and meet its austerity obligations.

In other news, John Brennan was confirmed as the new director of the C.I.A. by a Senate vote of 63 to 34.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to BD, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JB, JD, Jerry Gordon, Steen, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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An Evening with Geert Wilders: A Time of Convictions

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Geert Wilders, the founder and leader of the PVV party in the Netherlands, toured Australia last month under the sponsorship of the Q Society, speaking out against the Islamization of the West to audiences in several cities.

Our Sydney correspondent LAW Wells attended Mr. Wilders’ appearance in Liverpool, a suburb of Sydney, and sends the following report.

An Evening with Geert Wilders: A Time of Convictions
by LAW Wells

A man was attempting to enter into Australia. He had signed many forms and provided all the necessary documents. Now, he was being interviewed, and the interview was going well, until the interviewer asked a very interesting question.

“Do you have a criminal record?”

The traveller was confused for a moment, before finally saying:

“I didn’t realise you still needed one.”

Thus quipped Geert Wilders as he began an hour-long speech in Liverpool, in the south-west suburbs of Sydney. Through visa delays mandated by a minister, violent protests in Melbourne, cancellations in Perth and a mass of security and last-minute changes in Sydney, he was able to declare, to the cheers of the audience, that the night would not be cancelled, and thus bring to a conclusion the Geert Wilders Australian Tour, sponsored by the Q Society.

The Plague of Double-bookings

From the start, the tour was plagued by trouble. In the face of threats of violence and reprisals, a venue would be booked and then miraculously reveal that they had double-booked, or for some other reason pull out. I was not advised of the location until Thursday night, and went a little bug-eyed when I saw where the venue was — south-west Sydney is a very long way from my home in the outer north.

Not only that, but as I allowed myself plenty of time to arrive, I was able to witness the arrival of the NSW Police Riot Squad in convoy. I’ll admit, it drove home to me the threat that protesters were bringing to this event.

I began by joining the crowd of other early birds who were all waiting patiently a short way down the street, about halfway between the venue and the intersection. There was a line of police that had already been set up, who were there to ensure that the street was clear and the protesters kept well away. Almost as soon as we began to go through, the counter-protesters, who were nearly entirely from the Socialist Alliance and their non-affiliated sympathisers, began to chant “Muslims are welcome, racists are not” and a parody of a responsorial: “Say it loud, say it clear — Wilders is not welcome here.”

The few Muslims there were in general polite (as they often are at such events in Australia). One of them had pamphlets, which I requested, and which provided very little by the way of substantial information against declared misconceptions, and really only gave the standard talking points of Islamic apologetics.

After passing through the first line, which required booking confirmation and photo-ID, we walked down the road, and at the door of the venue, we were again asked to present our booking confirmation and ID. Then inside the venue, in the foyer, we passed through metal detectors and once again presented our bookings and ID.

For security this tight, and the standard Q Society disclaimer that they read at every one of their public events, one can only wonder at the state of free speech — the freedom to speak the truth, however hurtful and painful it may be — in Australia. The message of the Tour was originally meant to be Islam will become a problem. The difficulties in the tour demonstrated, however, that it was more apt to say Islam already is a problem. The media’s focus on the offense incurred against Muslims as opposed to the restriction that Mr Wilders has had to endure for nine years now is one very obvious symptom of exactly what we fear.

On a personal note, I would like to mention a few words from the introduction on the very subject of offense. It was stated that no one feared reprisals from Catholics when the clerical sexual abuse crisis was discussed, and while I was certainly offended, I acknowledged the truth of so many of the charges. As Scripture says, it’s a sword that cuts both ways, and we should all do well to remember that and to remind others of it, for the first duty of the gentleman (and by extension the lady) is to restate the obvious.

Sam Solomon and Charting Understanding

And so the first speaker took the stage. After a brief introduction, Sam Solomon, the famed convert from Islam who now seeks a true level of understanding and peace between Muslims and non-Muslims, without ever missing the double-speak so common among the self-appointed authorities within Islam, began his talk. With a slideshow in hand (so to speak), he took us through, with an insider’s knowledge (complete with Arabic recitation of the Koran), the totalitarian construction of Islam, as a prelude to explaining just why he had written his Charter of Muslim Understanding.

He began by noting that Islam, like all religions, challenges the assumptions and norms of a non-Islamic society. However, unlike other religions, Islam demands that the non-Islamic society have change imposed upon it by whatever means necessary. Without an understanding of this demand of imposition, which would have secular jurisdiction (unlike every other religion), we cannot adequately define the problem. Quoting from Einstein, Mr Solomon stated that we need to spend more time defining the problem, so that we might apply the correct solution to it, and that the major problem of the West was that we had failed to define the problem.

Most of the rest of his talk was thus dedicated to meditating on the problem that Islam caused. Contrasting the Western view of religion of life containing religion as an element (religion being a small box contained in the larger box of life) to the Islamic view of religion in which Islam contains life as an element of itself (life being a small box contained in the larger box of Islamic religion). Islam is not a just a faith of public and private devotion, but a way of ordering an entire society, not from the ground up (as other religions are wont to), but from the top-down (as tyrannies are more inclined to). This culminated in a quote from Mohammed himself that “Islam is a religion and a state”, and ample evidence of its secular nature is found in its body of law — Sharia.

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Reflections on a World Gone Mad, Part 2

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The fifth annual Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations met in Vienna on February 27th and 28th, and Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was one of the attendees. She has filed a account on what she observed, and discusses the larger ramifications of the AoC in the ongoing Islamization of the West.

The report below is the second in a three-part series. Previously: Part 1.

Reflections on a World Gone Mad
Part 2: Ignoring the central problem of our times

by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

Waving its magic wand of laws, treaties, and human rights, the Alliance of Civilizations ignores what I would argue is the central problem of our times:

Are we talking about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, and other international human rights instruments?

Or are we in fact discussing matters in terms of the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, which defines human rights according to the sharia and contradicts all other human rights conventions?

Indeed, the words human rights were mentioned only twice (!) during the entire opening plenary, while at the same time the words peaceful dialogue, harmony, intercultural dialogue, discrimination against Muslims, xenophobia, mutual respect and Islamophobia were repeated ad nauseam. Universal human rights were left hanging on the coat racks.

The AoC, represented by AoC High Representative Jorge Sampaio from 2007 until 2013, generally shies away from solid explanations:

… the Alliance gives special attention to improving relations between the so-called Western and Muslim societies by deconstructing prejudices, misconceptions and stereotypes that fuel fears, feed hostility, ignite tensions, and spark violence; by promoting education for valuing cultural diversity and learning how to live together with our differences and commonalities. (Sampaio, speaking at working breakfast with Kevin Rudd, Australian MP and Minister of Foreign Affairs, October 2011)

These pompous words deserve closer scrutiny.

“so-called Western and Muslim societies”

Why does Sampaio use the words “so-called”?

Are societies defining themselves as secular, democratic societies which observe the rule of law and which consider men and women equal before the law not indeed Western?

Do Muslim societies not conform to sharia law, which in fact does not acknowledge the equality of men and women?

Do Muslim societies not in fact segregate themselves willingly in European cities like London, Paris and Rotterdam?

And finally, why is there no priority for China, Russia, or South American countries? Could it be that they have no serious conflicts with the West?

deconstructing prejudices, misconceptions and stereotypes

And what might these prejudices, misconceptions and stereotypes be exactly?

Is the gang-rape of white British girls by Asian Muslim men considered a misconception?

Or is the openly Muslim hatred of Christians, as demonstrated by the torching and/or desecration of churches in Nigeria, Egypt, Iraq, and Indonesia falsely seen as stereotyping?

Isn’t it much more convenient not to ask questions like these in order to escape having to answer them?

feed hostility, ignite tensions, and spark violence

Do not those chanting “kill the infidels wherever you may find them” or “Jews back to the gas chambers” feed hostility?

Who ignites tensions and sparks violence?

The non-Muslims obstetrician who is forcibly removed from the delivery room by the Muslim father-to-be?

The Muslim youth gangs roaming the streets of Rotterdam hunting down and harassing Jews?

by promoting education for valuing cultural diversity and learning how to live together with our differences and commonalities

As a result of this violence, hostility and tension (by members of so-called Muslim societies), we need more education. Of course! This the perfect way to deal with violence, hostility, and tension!

Moreover, what are the commonalities uniting Western and Muslim societies?

Where is the evidence that there is, in fact, anything that binds these two societies together?

There is more, of course!

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UN Convoy Held Hostage in the Golan Heights

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A group of UN observers was taken hostage yesterday on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights by “Syrian” rebels — the same mujahideen who are bankrolled and given weapons by Western governments, all in the name of instituting “democracy” in the Arab world.

I placed the word “Syrian” in quotes above because, based on their accents, the rebel spokesmen who made the following video may be Saudis or other non-Syrian Arabs.

Many thanks to Russkiy for the translated summary, and to Vlad Tepes for titling and uploading the clip:

Below is an article from yesterday’s ANSAmed about the hostage-taking:

Syrian Rebels Take UN Observers Hostage in Golan Heights

To be released if Assad’s army withdraws from southern city

(ANSAmed) — Beirut, March 6 — A group of UN observers have been “stopped in the Golan Heights” by members of Syrian opposition fighters, according to a Youtube video in which rebels are seen in front of a UN vehicle.

The rebels say they will release the observers if Assad’s army withdraws from Jamlah in the Daraa province. The video shows the spokesman for the ‘Martyrs of Yarmouk’ brigade saying that “today on March 6 ,2013, we have taken into custody UN forces and will hold onto them until Assad’s (the Syrian president) troops withdraw from the Jamlah village.” The young man went on to say that “we are asking the United States, Europe and the (UN) Security Council to release those we have in our hands…to withdraw Assad’s troops from Jamlah, along the Israeli border. If this does not happen within 24 hours, we will treat them (the UN peacekeepers) as prisoners.” The name of the Syrian rebel brigade is in memory of the historical battle fought between Byzantine forces and the Islamic army in the seventh century A.D. near the Yarmouk river, which today runs between the borders of Jordan, Syria and Israel.

An article from today’s Asia News reveals that the hostages are Filipinos from UNDOF:

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A War Zone in the Banlieues: Video

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A couple of weeks ago we posted Hermes’ translation of a Hungarian TV report on the “Sensitive Zones” (ZUS) of the suburbs of Paris, where police are forced use military-style armored vehicles to enter the culturally enriched no-go zones.

Below is the accompanying video from the same TV outfit in Hungary. Many thanks to Hermes for doing this translation as well, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/6/2013

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Well, the news feed is of normal length tonight — somehow I managed to collect all the tips after the power came back on. But the rest of the blog is fairly light, thanks to all that crystallized climate change outside my window…

The most interesting news story I noticed concerns a group of UN observers taken hostage by Syrian rebels fighting the Assad regime. Mind you, these are the same rebels being supplied with money, weapons, and other assistance by Western governments. The article is from ANSA — does anybody know if it made it to the major MSM outlets?

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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Open Season on a Danish Gallery Owner

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“Danish” assassins failed in their attempt last month to kill Lars Hedegaard. They can’t easily get at Kurt Westergaard, because he is guarded by state security police. So now they are after Erik Guldager, the gallery owner who has exhibited — gasp! — a cartoon of Mohammed drawn by Kurt Westergaard.

Many thanks to our Norwegian correspondent The Observer for translating this article from Norwegian website Human Rights Service:

Image caption: “Because some people are so sensitive to graphic descriptions of Muhammad with items in his turban, I have decided to obscure the drawing, even though I don’t think it will matter to them.”

[Readers are advised to click through and see exactly how HRS modified the dreaded Turban Bomb to meet the demands of cultural harmony. The original is pictured in all its Islamophobic dreadfulness at right.]

The owner of Gallery Draupner in Århus in Denmark was earlier today threatened by two men. The Gallery has previously exhibited drawings of Muhammad

The two men wore uniform-like outfits and were carrying an aluminum baseball bat and a gun-like object. They made verbal threats to Erik Guldager, the owner of the gallery, but as of yet it is not known why the threats were made.

The police in Århus have confirmed that the two men showed up at the gallery around 1 pm, and that the police were alerted of the incident at 1.15 pm. The episode only lasted for a few minutes.

It’s too early to say whether the threats are directly linked with the gallery’s cooperation with Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. The gallery has previously exhibited Westergaard’s most famous drawing, “Muhammad with a bomb in his turban”.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/5/2013

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Despite the fact that 65% of Italians say they are struggling to make ends meet during the current economic crisis, despite the fact that more than a million people took to the streets of Portugal to protest their government’s “austerity” policies, despite the closure of the White House to tourists due to sequestration — despite all that, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to a record high today.

In other news, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has died after a long battle with cancer.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, MC, Paul Green, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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Reflections on a World Gone Mad, Part 1

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As we reported last week, the fifth annual Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations met in Vienna on February 27th and 28th. The official goals of the AoC consist of vague feel-good bromides, but practically speaking, its primary purpose is to implement the program of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. In particular, the AoC is keen to crack down on “defamation of religions”.

Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff attended last week’s events in Vienna. She has filed a account on what she observed, and discusses the larger ramifications of the AoC in the ongoing Islamization of the West.

The report below is the first in a three-part series.

Reflections on a World Gone Mad
Part 1: Chamberlain is cloned!

by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

“One of the major tasks of our generation is to build a global community, where people of all persuasions can live together in harmony and mutual respect.”
            — Karen Armstrong, AoC goodwill ambassador

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.”
            — George Orwell

“Dialogue means persuasion through threats, ‘cross-cultural understanding’ is translated as submission.”
            — Bat Ye’or, in Europe, Globalization
                and the Coming of the Universal Caliphate

In past decades, there has been a more or less covert movement to deliberately dissolve the sovereignty of nation-states, particularly in Europe. Decisions regarding politics, culture and information which should be taken on a national or even a local level have been relegated to a great extent to an international level represented by organizations such as the Anna Lindh Foundation or the Alliance of Civilizations, both of which are, putting it mildly, obscure and unknown to the public. The sinister instruments used in these organizations are called “dialogue”, “peace and harmony”, “partnerships”, and “multiculturalism”. According to eminent scholar Bat Ye’or:

Europeans are hemmed by a game of multiple mirrors, which radiate at every level and into infinity, prefabricated opinions in accordance with political and cultural agendas, of which they know nothing and often disapprove, but which they finance with their taxes. […] This opaque, elitist system undermines democracy. It also lacks visibility, doubling and multiplying itself like a hydra into networks and sub-networks. (Bat Ye’or, Europe, Globalization and the Coming of the Universal Caliphate, p. 125-6)

The setting could not have been more bizarre: the Vienna Hofburg, the hub of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, all glitzed up and shiny, hosted the most undemocratic event imaginable outside North Korea’s borders. The Austrian monarchy can be hailed a beacon of democracy compared to the Alliance of Civilizations, which celebrated its 5th Global Forum in Vienna, sucking up financial and other precious resources and taxes along the way and producing — unsurprisingly — no tangible results.

More than 1,000 men and women attended this forum, young and old, clergy and imams, from near and far, all in perpetual smiles, chatting with each other in the imperial hallways about how to make the world a better place, all the while ignoring the usual elephant in the (Hofburg) castle. Peace and harmony for 72 hours, then it was a collective exodus to the airport to return to reality. In fact, for these 72 hours, the Forum completely negated the outside world, as if the inter-religious tensions existed only in the minds of a few loonies, and if there were only more talk about peace and harmony, these loonies would acknowledge their idiocies and disappear in history’s dustbins. Irksomely, these men and women constituted a non-elected body, for not one spoke for himself, but rather identified with a group, most likely with a Muslim group.

In light of the Alliance’s evil machinations, and before we delve into the actual meeting, it is well worth the effort to examine its origins and aims. The 2004 attacks in Madrid perpetrated by “Muslim extremists” shocked Spain, toppled its (conservative) government, and gave birth to the creation of the Alliance of Civilizations, which — in the words of the inimitable Bat Ye’or —

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